TORONTO — The skeptics who maintain the Ottawa Redblacks have no shot at beating the Calgary Stampeders in the Grey Cup game on Sunday wouldn’t fit inside BMO Field and eight other Canadian Football League stadiums combined. Fortunately for the Redblacks, they only need a few dozen believers inside their own locker room … and one other thing.

“Put up more points than they do, I think, is the simple answer,” receiver Greg Ellingson said Wednesday. “Generally, the team and the guys that make more plays, have more explosive plays, will be the team that comes out with the victory, minus special teams and turnovers.”

Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris (left) and head coach Rick Campbell chat at practice for the 104th Grey Cup in Toronto on Wednesday, November 23, 2016.Frank Gunn /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Redblacks began physical Grey Cup preparations Wednesday with a practice on the domed artificial turf surface of an area high school.

Afterward, they spent much of their time before the assembled media seemingly in defence of their right to be in the Grey Cup game, as if addressing the idea that a regular-season record of 8-9-1 would somehow carry over into the Canadian Football League championship contest against the Stampeders, who won 15 games, lost only two and tied one.

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That tie came in early July in Ottawa. The Stampeders won by 25 in Calgary in September, but that was an eight-point game until the hosts pulled away late in the fourth quarter.

The Redblacks finished atop the East Division, the Stampeders atop the West. After first-round playoff byes, they each won a division final at home: Ottawa 35-23 against the Edmonton Eskimos; Calgary 42-15 against the B.C. Lions. Until they kick off on Sunday, the score will be 0-0.

“We were talking earlier about our record and the fact that we are underdogs, but this team has been winning the games we need to win to get in the position that we’re at,” Redblacks safety Antoine Pruneau said.

Quarterback Henry Burris said nobody really gave the Redblacks a chance to beat the Eskimos, either, even though that game would be at home at TD Place stadium.

“Now we’re playing against Calgary,” Burris said. “Well, Calgary is a pretty good football team and they have done a lot of great things this year, but again, at the end of the day, it’s all about playing football on Sunday, and the team that executes the best and takes care of the football and makes plays will win the game.

“Why not us?”

During the head coaches’ morning media conference, Rick Campbell was asked if it was somehow easy to get to the Grey Cup game. After all, only his three-year-old Redblacks have played in both last year’s and this year’s.

“No,” Campbell responded quickly. “I have a great appreciation for it. There’s a sinking feeling when you get really close, like when you get to the East or West final, and then you’re sitting at home this week. It’s a bummer.

Campbell again voiced approval at seeing Redblacks players quickly move past the euphoria of Sunday’s East final. To paraphrase the coach, much of the motivation derived from falling one score short against the Eskimos, 26-20, in the 2015 Grey Cup game. “Just to be on the wrong side of the score and to be standing in that locker room, you kind of have that sinking feeling,” Campbell said. “ I know we have a large group of guys that just want to make sure that this week we do everything we can to make sure we’re ready to give ourselves a chance that doesn’t come around all the time.”

First-year Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson said there was neither pressure nor expectations associated with trying to extend a recent standard of overall excellence, including five consecutive West final appearances and two of the past five Grey Cups: a loss to the host Toronto Argonauts in 2012 and a victory against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2014.

“I just basically live in the moment, week to week. It’s the best way,” Dickenson said. “It’s a cliché, but there’s a reason it’s a cliché: it works.

“I don’t even think about it. I think I just wanted to coach well and win the next game. The next game just happens to be the Grey Cup, so my plan is to coach well and win the next game and figure it out from there.”

East final star Kienan Lafrance started Wednesday’s practice as tailback with the first-team offence, but Burris made it sound as if Travon Van would also see action Sunday in place of Mossis Madu (shoulder). Kicker Chris Milo (lower body) was again attempting field goals, while linebacker Taylor Reed (shoulder) was a full participant after an upper-body problem sidelined him for most of the second half against Edmonton. “I wasn’t limited to anything today. I feel able to play,” Reed said. “I feel like I won’t hurt the team if I’m out there. I feel like I can give it my all come Sunday.”

Ottawa Redblacks running back Kienan Lafrance at the team’s practice at Monarch Park school in Toronto, Ont. on Wednesday November 23, 2016.Michael Peake /
Postmedia

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